Hey, Trina.
I could've killed those queers.
Yeah, listen, I could use a quick 50. Got a commuter for me?
I could spend the evening with you, if...
if you'd like that. Hm?
Have you ever been with a woman before, paying her?
Do you like it?
I mean, I have the feeling that that turns you on very particularly.
What turns me on is because I have a good imagination and I like it.
Pleasing.
Do you mind if I take my sweater off?
Well, I think in the confines of one's house, one should be free,
of clothing and inhibitions.
Oh, inhibitions are always nice because they're so nice to overcome.
Hi. I'd Iike an escort for the evening.
Yes. Someone foreign.
Do you have any foreign women?
Someone exotic. I'd Iike someone from another country.
Good.
But she's gotta be quiet.
If she doesn't talk, I will tip her very well.
OK?
I'm at the Sheraton Hotel, room 2730.
Caulfield.
Holden Caulfield.
"l kept walking around the room, waiting for this prostitute to show up."
"l kept hoping she'd be good-looking. I didn't care too much, though."
"l sort ofjust wanted to get it over with."
"l was starting to feel pretty sexy and all, but I was a little nervous anyway."
"Finally, somebody knocked on the door."
Hi. I'm Pia.
Thank you for coming.
You can relax. I'm not kinky.
I'm clean. I'm not weird.
In fact, I'm not even all that interested in sex.
I just wanna be in the company of a woman tonight.
I'm expecting that tomorrow will be a very difficult day for me.
- Would you Iike a drink? - Uh, I don't drink.
Well, tonight's your night off. We can do whatever you want.
Take your dress off.
Um... turn on the radio.
I think somebody saw me come in the room. I don't...
- I don't want jail. - Of course.
Would you Iike a massage?
Sure. Why not?
A real man doesn't have to take from a woman.
A real man doesn't have to use a woman.
He can give.
Thank you.
I woke up knowing somehow that this was the day,
that when I left that room,
that would be the last time I would see the room again.
I had never seen John Lennon up to that point.
I only knew that he was in the Dakota,
but I somehow knew that this was it.
This was the day.
I'm Holden Caulfield.
I am Holden Caulfield.
Hello. I'm Holden Caulfield.
I'm Holden Caulfield.
So I laid out on the dresser a tableau of everything that was important in my life,
so it would say, "Look, this is me."
"This is my past, and I'm going - gone - to another place."
I practised what it was gonna look like when the police came into the room.
It was like going through a door, and I knew I was going to go through a door.
The poet's door. William Blake's door.
Jim Morrison's door.
It was like I was going through a giant door,
and I was.
I was leaving my past.
My very soul was breathing between the pages of "The Catcher in the Rye".
Give me the strength.
Please, give me the strength to do it.
It has to be done.
Please give me the strength.
The phoneys have to know.
- Hey, man. How's it going? - How's it going?
- AII right. Are you staying warm out here? - Trying.
- Have you seen anybody today? - No, I haven't.
- No? Been quiet? - Yeah. Nobody's come out.
- Jose. Hey, man. - Hey. What's going on?
- How are you? Hi. I'm Mark. - I'm Paul.
- How are you? - AII right. How are you?
- So have you guys seen Lennon yet? - No.
- No, we were just talking about that. - He hasn't been out.
- You're a photographer. - Oh, yeah.
- Do you get pictures of him? - Yeah, all the time.
- That's great. - Yeah, it's pretty cool.
So, uh, are you new in town?
Uh... Yeah, I'm on vacation. I'm, uh...
I'm from Hawaii. Honolulu.
- Really? - Yeah.
I didn't realise people from Honolulu had a Southern drawl.
- Where are you staying in New York? - Why? What do you want to know for?
Don't walk away. Why do you want to know?
Easy, man. Take it easy. I was only making conversation.
You're the one who started it.
AII right?
Sorry.
That was weird.
Yeah. That's New York.
Well, it, uh...
Looks Iike it's down to us die-hard Beatleholics now.
Look, I'm sorry if I came on a Iittle strong.
I've been standing out here for nearly three days now.
You strike up a conversation Iike I'm your Iong-Iost cousin, then you get all hostile.
I'm bored and I'm far away from home,
so I try to talk to people for a Iittle companionship.
I'm tired, so I guess that's why I flew off the handle.
I'm sorry, OK?
AII right.
Hey, relax. No one's gonna steal your album around here.
- Do you get a Iot of shots of John? - Oh, yeah. AII the time.
Hey, here he comes.
Thanks, John.
- Anything else? - Thanks.
- You're welcome. - Thanks, John.
Oh, you Iucked out big time. That's pretty special.
Big stars don't usually put the date. That's a collector's item.
You know, wait until they see this back in Hawaii.
- Did you get any of me? - I think so.
I'II give you anything for that picture. Anything.
Did I have my hat on or was it off?
I don't want to be next to John Lennon with this stupid hat on. Was it on or off?
- I think it was on. - Shit!
Listen, is there any way you could get me that picture tonight?
- I'II give you $50 for it. - I Iive in New Jersey.
OK, meet me here tomorrow and I'II give you 50. Deal?
OK.
Jesus!
Wait until they see that picture back in Hawaii.
You know, me, standing next to John Lennon.
That's it. I'm gone. Good Iuck.
I'm staying at the Sheraton.
Like I said, you can't be too careful, especially in a city Iike this.
You never know who you're talking to.
I'm not from Hawaii. I'm from Georgia.
I grew up just outside Atlanta, in Decatur, Georgia.
I've travelled around the world, but Hawaii's the place I belong.
I probably wouldn't be alive if I hadn't moved there.
You wouldn't believe what I went there for. I've Iived an ironical Iife.
- I'II be back tomorrow night. - You ought to wait.
I mean, they'II be back before midnight.
Look, you got your autograph from John. Give it up for the day and get some rest.
No. I'm gonna get Yoko's.
Hey, you know, why don't I take your picture with him when he comes back?
I know about cameras. I've used them before.
I see John all the time. I can get my picture taken any time. I'm going home.
Well, suppose you don't see him again?
Mr Lennon?
John!
- Go! Go! Get out of here! - But where would I go?
I don't know.
It was like a movie.
It was like I was in a movie.
I got a gun, I got hollow-point bullets.
I thought he would just drop right in front of me and that was it.
I thought he was just gonna fall down, like in the movies.
Fall down dead.
Freeze! Police! Hands on your head!
Do it! Do it now!
Don't move!
He shot John Lennon!
Come on, man.
Hold on.
Come on, John. Hold in there.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. OK.
Come on. Hold on! Come on.
Come on.
Hang in there.
Come on. Come on!
Please, don't hurt me.
I murdered a man, but not only did I fall,
I took a lot more with me than just myself.
A whole era ended. It was the last nail in the coffin of the '60s.
He was brought to the emergency room shortly before 11pm.
He was dead on arrival.
...tonight, live.
If you've been anywhere near a television set or a radio these past few hours,
you already know that John Lennon of the Beatles is dead.
He's not dead. John Lennon can't be dead.
The suspect at this time is...
First of all, his identity. 25-year-old Mark David Chapman.
He comes from Hawaii. Police tell me he's been in the New York area about a week,
and began to hang around the apartment over the weekend, asking about Lennon.
He apparently ran into him for the first time this evening, about five o'clock,
asking Lennon for his autograph.
Lennon gave it to him on the jacket cover of a record.
Lennon went off to a recording session,
and we are told that Chapman remained at the hotel until Mr Lennon returned,
about eleven o'clock this evening.
Police officials describe what happened this way.
They say that Chapman came up from behind, yelled out Mr Lennon's name
and emptied a.38 revolver.
There were at least five shots spent.
There is very little known about 25-year-old Chapman.
He has been taken to the 20th Police Precinct, fingerprinted.
They're checking for prior arrest records, also for a motive. They don't have any yet.
They charged him officially with murder, but the reason for this attack, unknown.
Have a seat.
OK. Calm down, all right?
I'm going to take off your cuffs, make you a Iittle more comfortable.
- State your name. - Mark David Chapman.
- Your age. - 25.
- Your address. - 55 Kukui Street, Honolulu, Hawaii.
OK, do me a favour and stand up. I just want to check your pockets.
What have we got?
Have a seat, all right?
I remember a lot of pain and confusion when I dictated the statement.
I was in a very unreal, very surreal world.
I was in an utter panic of sheer terror
and wanted things to go back to the way they were before I had pulled the trigger.
I felt anger spreading over my mind as I was dictating the statement
and talking about "Catcher in the Rye ",
Iike I was being sucked into a giant wave that I couldn't swim out of
or even come up for air.
I didn't want to kill anybody,
and I really don't know why I did it.
I asked God to help me,
but we're all responsible for our own actions.
I came to New York five weeks ago.
I stayed at the YMCA on 62nd Street.
Mourners began gathering soon after the news of Lennon's death
and there are easily now a thousand mourners
who've come to pay tribute to him.
At the beginning, it was a very solemn vigil. Many held candles...
There were up to a thousand admirers at one time.
Lennon's wife, Yoko Ono, at one time sent a message down
asking the mourners to disperse, and most of them did,
but they are starting to return again, playing the familiar songs
that are so connected with John Lennon,
and some also for the Beatles as a group.
The feeling is of tremendous loss, and these people feel it very personally.
The profound loss to the music world is yet to be accounted for.
Come on, Iook alive. Let's get going. Move it.
Get me a vest.
Hold him up, right here.
- Get the vest on him. - Take your glasses off.
Hold your hands up.
I'm not gonna have Jack Ruby kill you in my station house, you understand?
Come on. Secure that.
Listen up. We've got the man who shot John Lennon here.
I don't want any Oswalds, you got it?
- Give me a coat. - Get him a coat.
No fuck-ups. You understand me?
Are you ready? Move.
Get the door.
Move it up. AII right, Iet's go.
Jesus Christ! Get them the fuck... Get them back. Let's go.
Move the fuck back. Let's go.
I remember, from the darkness inside the coat,
a tremendous tumult occurring as we walked from one door to another door.
Let's go. Down the stairs. In the bathroom!
I looked down, and the ground was lit up by white light.
It was almost like I was walking on just one giant pulsating beam of light
under my feet.
Back the fuck up, man!
- Come on. Let's go. - Jesus Christ!
Cullen, get on the door.
Relax.
So...
why'd you do it?
I Iike John Lennon.
So do I.
Boss, it's clear. Let's go.
Cullen, Iet's go.
I was Mr Nobody till I killed the biggest somebody on Earth.
Outside the court were many Lennon fans.
Security measures were strict when they filed in
as there have been many threats against Chapman's life since the murder.
I was nothing. Then I was a big shot.
This was the hottest thing in the city at the time.
Who are you? Get outta here! Get outta here!
Get the fuck outta here now! Get him in the car.
Get him in the fucking car! Let's go!
Move it!
Let's go! Let's go!
25-year-old Chapman of Hawaii
was described as having a smirk on his face.
Police, calling him a wacko, charged him with murder.
John's wife, Yoko Ono, issued a statement to the weeping crowd of 500
who gathered quickly outside the co-op.
She said, "John loved and prayed for the human race. Please do the same for him."
John Lennon and Paul McCartney wrote more hit songs
than any composers in modern history.
They're considered to have been the spirit behind many of the social changes
of the '60s and '70s.
Hey! Get back down there.
AII I care about is getting you out of here before someone kills you.
- You understand? - Yes, sir.
Chapman was charged with second-degree murder,
the most serious charge in New York State for killing a non-law-officer.
He was then taken to Bellevue Hospital for psychiatric...
Everywhere he goes, Chapman wears two bulletproofjackets.
The threat of a lynching is almost too much for police.
They fear that fans might decide to storm the hospital.
I remember cockroaches and I remember filth,
and I remember a smell. I remember loud disco music,
and I remember just a terrible feeling of something like a Fellini film.
...so well,
and music critic Robert Palmer who recently interviewed John Lennon.
John Coleman will bring us weather news this morning,
but now, at 30 minutes, almost 31, after seven o'clock,
Steve Bell has the news.
Thank you. Good morning, everyone.
New York City Police have arrested and charged a suspect
in last night's murder of John Lennon.
He's 25-year-old David Chapman of Hawaii,
who police say had been in New York for about a week, apparently stalking Lennon.
The police describe Chapman as a "wacko".
Sources say he shot Lennon five times as the musician returned to his apartment,
then dropped his gun and waited for police.
Authorities say they do not know of a motive for that killing.
Informed of Lennon's death, his former songwriter partner, Paul McCartney, said:
"l can't take it. John was a great guy. He's going to be missed by the whole world."
As June Massell reports, many of Lennon's fans and admirers
heard about his death on late-night-radio music programmes.
John Lennon will be remembered as a gifted and talented musician.
The Beatles were the top pop group in the world
from the time their first album was released in 1964
until they broke up in 1970.
With Lennon at the time of the shooting was his wife, Yoko Ono,
who Lennon once said helped him find his identity.
When doctors told her Lennon was dead, she cried, "Tell me it isn't true."
June Massell, ABC News, Chicago.
I didn't care what the doctors thought about me.
I was above and beyond that.
I was with a pure, holy purpose
and there was nothing they could do that would touch it.
I thought they were all phoneys.
I became a saviour,
a prophet.
The "Catcher in the Rye" of my generation.
Hello, Mr Chapman.
How are you?
Have you had a comfortable night?
I slept fine.
Good.
Do you know where you are?
Bellevue Hospital.
- Mm-hm. Right. - Correct.
- Why are you here? - For the murder of John Lennon.
Did you kill John Lennon?
- You oughta know that. - Yes, I do.
Next question.
Why did you kill John Lennon?
Well, that's tough to answer.
Probably, uh...
a number of different reasons.
- Let's start. I have a Iot of time. - I'm sure you do.
A Iot of questions, a Iot of answers.
You provide the answers.
I ask the questions.
So give me one reason.
Because I thought he was a phoney.
- A phoney? - Mm-hm.
- Didn't Iike his music, is that it? - No, I actually Ioved his music.
You didn't Iike his Iyrics?
Well, I...
I thought I understood his Iyrics, but I guess I didn't.
What's phoney about John Lennon?
Have you ever thought about death before?
Killing?
Killing? Yeah.
I have thought about death. I have thought about killing.
I just killed a man.
Is that killing enough for you?
Do you ever think about suicide or taking yourself out of pain some other way?
Yeah, I've thought about suicide.
I tried to wipe myself out before I wiped John Lennon out.
- You did? - Yeah.
And what happened?
I couldn't do it. I was too chicken.
- You were? - Yeah.
I went up on top of the Empire State Building,
and, uh...
I wanted to blow my brains out.
- Why is that? - I believe nobody's ever done it before.
It'd be all over the newspapers.
What stopped you?
Picturing myself hitting the bottom.
The fear.
Fear of physical pain.
I pictured my brains on the ground.
I thought I still might be alive.
Do you have that same picture in your head about John Lennon?
Do you think he felt the pain you felt?
Well, I'm sure he felt pain.
I don't know. I guess I didn't really know him.
Did he do something to you personally?
I don't want to talk any more. I don't want to talk about the killing.
I'm trying to block it out of my mind.
Why is that?
Why do you think?
I don't know.
- Have you ever killed anyone? - No, I haven't.
- Have you ever seen someone dead? - Yes.
Bullet wounds, blood?
Did you get excited about that?
I'm done talking.
It's conviction you want, is it?
- Or is it fame? - We're done. I'm done talking.
- You certainly are. - Yeah. Yeah.
Thank you, Mr Chapman. It was great talking to you.
Stop there.
- Let's go and grab something after this. - Clear.
Stop there.
Hey, killer!
See you soon, killer.
Lennon's killer had several days of psychiatric examination
under a 24-hour suicide watch,
before being moved to Rikers lsland jail to a more secure cell
for his own protection from other prisoners.
He spent his first two days refusing food
following a threat scrawled on a prison wall:
"You don't have much time left."
"Soon, killer. Soon."
Within days, the lawyer assigned to represent me withdrew.
This from a guy with a rep for defending no-hope clients.
I began reading "Catcher" again,
and it was like I was reading a whole other book from the one I'd read before,
Iike I was reading a blueprint of what had happened to me.
I made a list of 50 total coincidences.
It was like the whole killing was set up by destiny,
just something that was meant to be.
That's when I realised John Lennon had been killed
to promote the reading of "The Catcher in the Rye".
And that same electric current passed through my body again,
and lit up all the cells in my brain.
I became euphoric, knowing now there was a reason beyond myself
for what I had done.
Shots have been fired as Reagan left the Washington Hilton hotel.
White House officials say the president was not hit,
but there are reports that three people were wounded by gunfire.
Joe Ewog was there when the shooting happened.
A series of explosions that sounded like firecrackers.
They'd gone into the back seat by one of the Secret-Service agents. After...
- He got that from me. - ..swarming around the man with the gun.
They surged back towards where I was, near one of the doors to the hotel.
They wrestled him to the ground, then put him in a police car.
John Hinckley Jr had become obsessed by Jodie Foster
and had imagined that she would be impressed if he murdered the president.
Good idea. I had a backup Iist, but Reagan wasn't on it.
I was going for Jackie Onassis,
George C Scott,
Johnny Carson, if I couldn't get Lennon.
Very anxious.
Hyperventilating and exhausted.
Cooperative.
Insatiable need for attention.
Have you seen any other doctors at all?
Grandiose visions of himself.
Mood fluctuations.
Bingo.
Paranoid tendencies.
Rage.
What was the logic behind all this?
Would you say you loved the man?
Tell me about your mother. Are you able to see that...
you're a separate person from the person in the book?
My mission was now to promote "The Catcher in the Rye",
and I was gonna use my trial, the trial of the century,
to promote the reading of that book.
Two weeks before the trial, Chapman has instructed his Iawyers
that he wishes to plead guilty.
In a statement today, Chapman says that God had spoken to him
and wanted him to plead guilty.
Defence lawyer Jonathan Marks has asked judge Dennis Edwards
to have a panel re-examine him
to determine if he was competent enough to make such a decision.
The judge refused.
I was never mad. I was blessed.
But there was one more task I had to endure.
I had to be purified.
Exorcised.
- I know you, Satan. - I'm a Christian. I can't be possessed.
I command you, Satan, to come out.
I summon them up. They're not inside.
It is Christ who commands you...
Do you believe in God?
The devil?
Have you ever woken up
with the sensation that something evil is in the room?
You're not really awake, but you're not really dreaming either.
Your eyes won't open more than about halfway.
You just feel paralysed with a fear that's so powerful, you don't know who you are.
You're so frightened, you've virtually lost your identity. Fear can do that, you know.
It can strip you of your identity.
There's nothing more frightening than that.
I know.
Holy Lord, almighty Father,
everlasting God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
who once and for all consigned that fallen tyrant to the flames of hell,
who sent your only-begotten Son into the world to crush that roaring lion...
I was in a very surreal world. I was in an utter panic of sheer terror
and wanted things to go back to the way they were before I had pulled the trigger.
My whole life was like that at that time -
a half-waking nightmare.
I couldn't wake up and I couldn't sleep it away.
I was scared to death, but I couldn't scream.
I would try to scream,
and it would remain echoing in my chest without even being vocalised.
That was what came out that night in December
when John Lennon stepped out of his limousine.
What came out of the barrel of that gun that night
was a giant scream after all those years.
Listen to some of the Lennon records,
Iisten to the background of some of the Beatles' songs.
That screaming in the background, that's John.
Listen to him scream when he's singing about not having his mother,
about being abandoned by his mother and his father.
Poor guy. His father left the family,
then his mother left him to be raised by his aunt and uncle.
Then his mother got killed
after she came back to him after all those years.
To think, after a person had been through all he had been through as a child,
then to get murdered by somebody like me.
Thank you all very much. God bless you.
Chapman was brought from prison
to the state supreme court in Manhattan to hear the judge's sentence.
Chapman showed no emotion whatsoever
when the sentence of 20 years to life was handed out,
but before that moment, there was to be detailed evidence about his state of mind.
Chapman sat in a blue T -shirt, holding a copy of Catcher in the Rye.
When the judge asked if he had anything to say before the sentence,
Chapman rose and read a short passage from the book.
"I'm standing at the edge of this crazy cliff."
"What I have to do, I have to catch everybody
if they start to go over the cliff - I mean if they don't Iook where they're going
I have to come out from somewhere and catch them."
"That's all I'II do all day."
"I'd just stand there and be the catcher in the rye and all."
"I know it's crazy, but that's the only thing I'd really Iike to be."
"I know it's crazy."